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Throughout following 12 months, I will be on my industrial placement as a software developer, and have decided to start a series of blog posts tracking my progress in preparation for my final year of my degree, and out of general curiosity to see what I have learnt, what skills I gained and so on, throughout the coming year.

Before the start of my placement, I would like to share information about: finding placements, applying for placements and some other general bits of (hopefully useful) information.

Even though most of the examples, and my path to finding a placement are software development oriented, general advice should apply to placements in other fields too.

Finding a placement

Before starting the search it’s very useful to go through the following steps (details of steps are not discussed further, but they do help with the process):

  • Outline your strengths and weaknesses in list format, and give short justifications for each followed by a real-world example/examples (will be useful for CV, application forms and interviews)
  • Update and streamline your CV. Your CV is likely to undergo many changes during your search and should improve in each iteration (I went through over 13 different versions, before I had one that was good enough to be reusable and adequate for every subsequent application). This step is quite important and I would recommend having your CV checked by multiple people to get different perspectives and insights (also helps finding spelling mistakes!)
  • Learn to write cover letters – I haven’t had to write one when applying for jobs prior to my search for a placement, and it took some time to get good at (I think), so investing some time in learning (at least) the basics prior to applying, will save you time and effort when you find a placement application which requires a cover letter.
  • Set up a LinkedIn account if you don’t have one already – I found to be quite useful when looking and applying for placements.
  • Bonus – if you are lacking work experience, go to events (e.g., hackathons – club nights do not apply), join relevant societies and participate. Additionally, work on personal projects. This will not only give you valuable experience, but will also make you stand out from the competition! – Source (personal experience)

Steps above aren’t any particular order, and are likely to overlap with your search/application stage of finding a placement.

Steps outlined above and places to find placements are usually provided by the university, in addition to various workshops to make sure you are prepared during this entire process. If not check other university websites for additional resources and useful pointers.

Placements can be found in various places, namely:

  • Specially dedicated websites (e.g., Gradcracker and RateMyPlacement)
  • LinkedIn (usually most of the looking & application process is done within the platform)
  • Career fairs - there were quite few of these around my university campus and allowed to get in touch with recruiters, and find out what companies are expecting from their applicants
  • In person – use any connections you have, to find vacancies, as not all of them are advertised online

Applying for Placements

Preparing for applications and applying for placements will take up bulk of your time during this process, so set some time aside to get this done properly and consistently to optimise your chances of finding a good placement quickly.

I did not follow that advice, and had to keep searching for placement until quite late in the year. Two main hurdles slowed me down: lack of consistency in my search, and loss of confidence after being rejected, half-way through a very promising position. Main downside of these two issues was the time I did not spend carrying on my search.

Answering application questions

One of key barriers when applying, is answering questions. One of the most important things I leant was to read the questions carefully, figure out how the answer is relevant to the company/position I am applying for and answer appropriately.

For example when applying for a large, well established tech company for an entry-level software development position, you are asked the following question: “What is your motivation for applying for this role?”

If your answer involves:

  • Mentioning or focussing on the salary
  • “Ever since I was young I always dreamed of working for …”
  • “I need a job”

As true or false as any of those may be, you’re likely to be simply ignored. I haven’t spent enough time communicating with HR to have a solid, data-backed and industry focussed, “correct” answer to this question, however I personally found, and have been told by several recruiters that a typical, “good” answer would be something along the lines of:

  • How company’s activity, involvement of your role to company’s activities match your personal goals and aspirations as a professional. Bonus points for giving examples of actions you have taken in the past towards achieve those goals and aspirations (bulk of the answer)
  • What you bring to the company and the role, and how you stand out from the rest of competition (relatively brief part of the answer)

General pointers

As this is getting quite long, and doubt anyone will read this, I’ll wrap things up with some general advice!

  • Being prepared for (possibly constant) rejection / being ignored will save you time, and help your search in the long run
  • Be confident – doesn’t matter if you’re predicted 1st class degree, if you are unable to acknowledge your own abilities, contributions, and act on all opportunities you’re interested in you will have a hard time
  • Be persistent – there’s a lot of competition out there, so just keep at it!